Press zooms in on new drive by SON in fight against fake products manufacturers, importers, others

APA – Lagos (Nigeria)
The report that the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) is already working with the National Assembly to amend its Act to enable it to prosecute and sentence to jail producers of fake drugs and other products is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Tuesday.
The Guardian reports that the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) is already working with the National Assembly to amend its Act to enable it to prosecute and sentence to jail producers of fake drugs and other products.
The existing act does not give the needed power to SON to prosecute and send culprits of fake drugs and products to jail, thus limiting the efficiency of the operation of the organisation.
“We are already working with NASS to amend the existing Act to increase penalties like jail terms to defaulters whose offences relate to lack of standardisation of products in the country,” the Director-General of SON, Farouk Salim, said.
Salim disclosed this at the weekend while speaking on ‘The Role of Standardisation in Building Resilient Non-oil Sector’ at the Commerce and Industry Correspondents of Nigeria in Abuja.
Salim, who was represented by a deputy director in the organisation, Mariam Samson, said the bill to amend SON Act when passed into law, will criminalise the production, manufacturing and distribution of substandard products that could endanger the lives of consumers.
He added that manufacturers and importers of fake products will not only get fined but will also go to jail.
The newspaper says that Nigeria’s hope for a better economic outlook and more jobs continues to dim, as credits to government progressively widen at the expense of private sector lending.
Economic recovery is driven largely by private-sector investment. But credit data in recent years shows increasing crowding-out of private investment.
Data show that while credit extended to the public sector has progressively increased by more than six-fold over the last five years, the banks have not been able to double the private sector credit portfolio.
Data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on credit growth indicate that credit to the private sector in the past five years (2018 to 2023), has risen by an abysmal 85.6 per cent while credit to the public sector increased by 518 per cent.
On average, lending to the public sector soared by over 100 per cent yearly within the period whereas, in the case of the private sector, the growth was merely 17 per cent.
The implication is that there are less funds for the private sector while available funds come at a higher cost to private businesses.
The scenario is quite agonising for an economy, which is susceptible to inflationary pressure and characterised by a high debt service ratio, weak infrastructural base and other macroeconomic challenges.
Already, that the nation’s GDP has continued to witness abysmal growth on the back of the ugly scenario means that respite is yet to come for the ailing economy, with a fast rising population.
The Punch reports that increased 5G rollout and 4G expansion improved foreign investments into the telecommunications sector by 325.12 per cent in 2022.
The capital importation data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that telecoms attracted $456.82m in 2022, compared to $107.46m that was attracted in 2021.
This is as the sector continued to retain its foreign investment appeal despite the country’s challenging economic environment.
Though telecoms recorded an increase in foreign investments in 2022, the total foreign investments into the country fell by 20.47 per cent or $1.37bn from $6.7bn in 2021 to $5.33bn in 2022.
Commenting on the sectors that attracted the most investments in the fourth quarter of 2022, the NBS said, “Disaggregated by sectors, capital importation into the production sector recorded the highest inflow of $392.54m, representing 37.01 per cent of total capital imported in Q4 2022.
“This was followed by capital imported into the banking sector, valued at $255.45m (24.08 per cent), and telecoms with $168.27m (15.86 per cent).”
Since the COVID-19 network further increased the reliance of almost every sector on the country’s communication backbone, the telecoms sector has recorded increased network roll-out to expand coverage.
Teledensity, the number of active telephone connections per 1,000 inhabitants living within an area, has grown from 97.45 per cent as of January 2020 to 119.01 per cent as of February 2023, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission.
Broadband penetration has grown from 38.49 per cent to 48.49 per cent, mobile Internet subscriptions from 128.37 million to 156.42 million, and mobile subscriptions from 185.74 million to 226.84 million within the time under review.
MTN Nigeria and Airtel Africa disclosed that they invested N613.13bn in 4G expansion and 5G rollout in 2022.
The newspaper says that the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas workers has said that its National Executive Council is going to come out with NUPENG’s position on the ongoing debate over the planned removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, after its NEC meeting.
However, another major union in the sector – Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, kicked against subsidy removal, stressing that the move should be suspended, because the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), did not provide the required factors for subsidy removal.
Both NUPENG and IPMAN were reacting to the position of their sister union -Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, as they spoke with our correspondent in separate telephone conversations.
Late last month, PENGASSAN called on the Federal Government to stop subsidising petrol, as well as ensure the speedy rehabilitation of Nigeria’s refineries.
PENGASSAN’s President, Festus Osifo, had made the call while speaking with journalists at the National Executive Council meeting of the association in Abuja.
Asked whether PENGASSAN was in support of fuel subsidy removal in the absence of any functional domestic refinery, Osifo replied, “Yes!”
But when contacted for the position of NUPENG on the subject, its National President, Williams Akporeha, said the union’s NEC would also have to meet, as he was also quick to state that the association aligned with the Nigeria Labour Congress on the subsidy debate.
Reacting to PENGASSAN’s position on subsidy removal, Akporeha said, “He (Osifo) took that decision after his NEC meeting. So we will also hold our NEC meeting to come out with our own position.
“However, our position is still the same with that of the NLC. We don’t have a separate position from NLC. But again, my NEC will give further directives on that.”
Although NUPENG president did not state when his executive council would meet, he insisted that the union would not make any official position public until the meeting holds.
GIK/APA